Eclipsed
by Muriel Candytuft
Summary: Lucy becomes jealous of Susan's beauty and grace, and that jealousy takes an extreme turn for the worse.
1. Chapter 1

Eclipsed

A/N: More of what I love to write--Golden Age stories! Slight AU in that I've fiddled with the Pevensie children's ages. Peter is 25, Susan 23, Edmund 20, Lucy 17. I guess the ages are synonomous with the ages of the kids who played them in the movie.

You already know I don't support any kind of slash, but I don't support any kind of incest either.

To everyone who read my other work: Your reviews and encouragement mean a lot to me. Thank you!

Obviously, I don't own anything Narnian. If I did, there would be twenty books, twenty movies, and a TV series, and we'd all be as sick of Narnia as we are of The Land Before Time. We wouldn't want that.

Prologue: Before The Invisible Audience

_Susan was all bright eyes, perfect hair, winning smile, as she stepped up to a prodiguous harp. A thunderous rumble of applause deafened Lucy, who stood still in the shadowy wing of the stage, as her older sister curtseyed to an unseen audience. When the clapping had stopped, an enormous voice boomed, "SUSAN, QUEEN OF NARNIA, WILL PLAY THE HARP!"_

_Lucy sighed as Susan, with a sweep of her silk robes, sat down at the harp with an air of superiority. The booming voice intoned, less grandly than before, "AND HER SISTER LUCY, THE LESSER QUEEN OF NARNIA, WILL TRY AND SING WHILE QUEEN SUSAN PLAYS THE HARP."_

_Polite, scattered applause greeted this, and rapidly subsided._

_"_Lesser_ queen? _Try_ and sing!" outraged Lucy wanted to retort, but she felt a hard shove from behind. At the push, she stumbled awkwardly towards Susan, who was straightening the golden tiara that sat atop her dark hair. Now Lucy realised that her own mop of dark brown curls was windswept and disorderly; she wore a drab cotton frock, twisted and stained; and her silver tiara was missing. Embarrassed, she turned about, ready to flee, but a voice in the unseen crowd shouted derisively, "Come on, Queenie, sing already!"_

_And then Susan started playing her instrument._

_Suddenly panicked, Lucy began to sing before she remembered what a terrible singer she was. Her untrained voice turned the beautiful expertise of Susan's playing into dissonant chaos._

_The audience began to boo._

_Lucy continued singing, trying to rein her voice into pitch._

_"Stop it, Lucy," Susan whispered, though her hands did not leave the harp strings. "They don't like it."_

_"BOOOOO!"_

_Lucy didn't know how, but that enormous wave of boos, like a large hand, reached out and pushed her down on her back, so hard that she choked as her back slammed into the floor. Tears gathered in her eyes as pain clawed at her body and the boos from the invisible audience turned into laughter. Mocking, dismissing laughter._

_Tranquilly, Susan finished playing her song. As the last note from the harp dissolved into silence, another blast of applause stung Lucy's ears. Susan, Queen of Narnia, had played the harp. And now she turned to her younger, unwanted sister, with something like a self-satisfied smirk on her face._

_Lucy stared back at her, that paragon of perfection and beauty, with all the hatred she could muster in her eyes._

_"I told you, Lucy," Susan shrugged gently. "They just don't like you. You're just unloveable..."_

_"Unloveable!" the audience echoed emphatically. Lucy covered her ears angrily, but the myriad voices of the crowd insisted, "Unloveable...unloveable..."_

"Lucy, what is it? Are you awake? What's wrong? Lucy!"

A single, familiar voice drowned out the invisible audience, and a warm pair of arms lifted her from the cold terror of her dream back into reality.

"Lucy?" the voice repeated quietly.

Peter.

Lucy dragged her eyelids open saw her eldest brother's face, illuminated by a small shaft of sunrise peeking through her window. He had his arm about her shoulder and stared concernedly at her. "What?" she slurred drowsily.

"You were mumbling in your sleep," Peter explained, pulling his arm away from her. "Are you okay?"

"Unloveable..." A faint echo of that horrible audience taunted Lucy's brain, and she realised her eyes were puffy and tear-filled.

"Um, yes, I'm all right," she muttered, swallowing her tears. "Just had a bad dream."

"Sorry to hear that." Peter's grey eyes darted to the window as a horn sounded outside. "Listen, I've got to leave to the North early, but I'll try and be back in a fortnight."

"All right," Lucy snuggled back down into the haven of her pillows. "Give those giants an extra hard whupping for me."

"I'll do my best," Peter grinned. He leaned over and gently kissed Lucy's forehead. "Do what Ed and Susan tell you. I love you."

"Goodbye, Peter," Lucy murmured tiredly in reply. When he had gone, the audience began jeering again.

"Unloveable...unloveable..."

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut in dread as the dream inexorably began to repeat itself.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1: The Courtyard

A/N: So sorry, anyone who had alerts on this story, that it took so long, and that this is so short! Thank you all for your reviews and encouragement.

After a light breakfast, Lucy retreated to the upper courtyard. The sun was almost fully risen, but it had only just begun to reach over the courtyard walls, bathing the place in a rare, ethereal light. Pillows of autumnal fog hung low over the dewy grass, making Lucy's haunt look like a lonely fairyland. Lucy sat quietly on a bench, after spreading a blanket over it to protect herself from the seat's chill stone. Pulling a small book from her pocket, Lucy breathed in a stream of mossy air and sighed, content in her solitude. For a few hours, she was undisturbed, but eventually she heard soft footfalls upon the dirt walkway. It was Susan.

Lucy saw her coming and remembrance of her nightmare bubbled in her brain like a fountain of acid. She turned back to her book.

As Susan approached her younger sister, she hesitated slightly. Lucy had been unusually terse and distant at breakfast, even as Edmund delivered a hilarious account about his stay in Archenland; she'd avoided all conversation and eye contact, especially with Susan.

"Uh, Lucy," Susan finally began, "Aren't you going to get ready?"

"For what?"

Susan's eyebrows lifted. "For the ball tonight."

"Ball!" Lucy's book snapped shut as she quickly stood.

"Only the ball for the Queen of Terebinthia," Susan replied sarcastically. "How do you forget these things?"

"I don't care for balls." Lucy's words were clipped.

"I live for them," Susan giggled.

"I see that every day," Lucy muttered, and she started to wander into a cluster of trees.

"Well, see what you will, but I won't have you looking like a ruffian before the Terebinthans," Susan declared.

Lucy whipped around and faced her, one hand against a tree trunk. "Ruffian!"

"Just get ready as soon as you can, Lucy," Susan turned away impatiently and marched back inside.

Lucy stormed up a tree trunk and slumped in its branches, fuming. Unloveable ruffian.

"We'll see who the unloveable ruffian is, Su," she hissed.


End file.
